eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Wnt signaling mediates acquisition of blood–brain barrier properties in naïve endothelium derived from human pluripotent stem cells

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Benjamin D Gastfriend
   2. Hideaki Nishihara
   3. Scott G Canfield
   4. Koji L Foreman
   5. Britta Engelhardt
   6. Sean P Palecek
   7. Eric V Shusta

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The manuscript by Gastfriend et al. establishes a novel protocol for the differentiation of blood-brain barrier endothelial cells by activating Wnt/β-catenin signaling in human pluripotent stem cells at a critical stage of naïve endothelial progenitors. The characterization of naïve endothelial progenitors and the novel model has potential impact on basic research approaches as well as on the use of in vitro models in drug development and pharmacology. The strength of the study is the comprehensive analysis of the differentiated blood-brain barrier endothelial cells, whereas weaknesses are present in some experimental setups and data conclusion, requiring additional experimental support.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Sex differences in learning from exploration

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Cathy S Chen
   2. Evan Knep
   3. Autumn Han
   4. R Becket Ebitz
   5. Nicola M Grissom

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Chen et al. trained male and female animals on an explore/exploit (2-armed bandit) task. Despite similar levels of accuracy in these animals, authors report higher levels of exploration in male than in female mice. The patterns of exploration were analyzed in fine-grained detail, with the addition of computational modeling: males are less likely to stop exploring once exploring is initiated, whereas females stop exploring once they learn. The results are of broad interest to those interested is sex differences in learning. Inclusion of more primary behavioral data and further justification of the models and parameters is needed to clarify data presentation and interpretation.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Urgency forces stimulus-driven action by overcoming cognitive control

   This article has 1 author:

   1. Christian H Poth

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     It has been shown previously that saccades are obligatorily directed to visual stimuli if they are generated under time pressure, indicating that cognitive control is reduced briefly after a stimulus onset. The present study demonstrates this temporary impairment in cognitive control is present for manual responses, can occur when the conflict arises from non-spatial features of stimuli, and therefore is more general than previously thought. The data conclusively support the conclusions of the paper.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Transferrin receptor 1-mediated iron uptake regulates bone mass in mice via osteoclast mitochondria and cytoskeleton

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. Bhaba K Das
   2. Lei Wang
   3. Toshifumi Fujiwara
   4. Jian Zhou
   5. Nukhet Aykin-Burns
   6. Kimberly J Krager
   7. Renny Lan
   8. Samuel G Mackintosh
   9. Ricky Edmondson
   10. Michael L Jennings
   11. Xiaofang Wang
   12. Jian Q Feng
   13. Tomasa Barrientos
   14. Jyoti Gogoi
   15. Aarthi Kannan
   16. Ling Gao
   17. Weirong Xing
   18. Subburaman Mohan
   19. Haibo Zhao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors present a very well written manuscript addressing an important unknown in bone homeostasis, aiming to understand the mechanism of iron mediated effects on bone, findings of novel significance that are of interest to basic iron biologists, bone biologists, experts in mitochondrial respiration, and endocrinologists. This is the first study to show that Tfr1 is important for iron uptake in vivo and for proper osteoclast function. Mechanistically, Tfr1-mediated iron uptake is important for mitochondrial function and cytoskeleton organization, which is important for bone resorption. Overall, this study adds important information regarding the role of Tfr1 and iron metabolism in osteoclasts.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Low-affinity integrin states have faster ligand-binding kinetics than the high-affinity state

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jing Li
   2. Jiabin Yan
   3. Timothy A Springer

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Li, Yan and Springer report ligand binding on- and off-rates for three different conformations of α4β1 as well as α5β1 integrin. This is the first report that provides these numbers, which are important to understand the 'mode of integrin activation'. The study is - from a technical stand point - flawlessly performed and the calculated data is in perfect agreement with the previously published data.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. A test of the pioneer factor hypothesis using ectopic liver gene activation

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jeffrey L Hansen
   2. Kaiser J Loell
   3. Barak A Cohen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     How transcription factors access their DNA binding motifs in chromatin and cooperate with other transcription factors in DNA binding remains a contentious question. It is clear that some transcription factors ("pioneer transcription factors") play a dominant role in opening chromatin during development and reprogramming, but it has also been clear that the ability of transcription factors to do so lies on a spectrum, that pioneer transcription factors may mutually interact with other transcription factors in their pioneering activity and that their mode of binding is still poorly understood. This manuscript's presentation attempts to refute an overly simplified pioneer factor hypothesis. Overall, this is an important topic and the authors use a good experimental approach, but the analyses are limited and the interpretation too simplified.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Proximity labeling identifies LOTUS domain proteins that promote the formation of perinuclear germ granules in C. elegans

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Ian F Price
   2. Hannah L Hertz
   3. Benjamin Pastore
   4. Jillian Wagner
   5. Wen Tang

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors use proximity labeling and genetic experiments to identify and functionally characterize new components of C. elegans P granules. The conclusions of the paper are well-supported by the data. This work will be of broad interest to developmental biologists, particularly those interested in the formation and function of germ cells.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Effects of arousal and movement on secondary somatosensory and visual thalamus

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Gordon H Petty
   2. Amanda K Kinnischtzke
   3. Y Kate Hong
   4. Randy M Bruno

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors show that secondary thalamic region POm provides information on slow as opposed to rapid changes in whisker angular position; these appear to be secondary to changes in the animal's behavioral state. The authors find similar state dependent activity in LP, a higher level visual thalamic nucleus. This is a timely study in that many labs have observed state-dependent activity throughout the cortex and thalamus, but the mechanisms of this activity are incompletely understood. This study brings us closer to revealing the source of this signal by ruling out some of the likely candidates, such as reafferent signals and cortical feedback.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Specialized neurons in the right habenula mediate response to aversive olfactory cues

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Jung-Hwa Choi
   2. Erik R Duboue
   3. Michelle Macurak
   4. Jean-Michel Chanchu
   5. Marnie E Halpern

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The three reviewers have appreciated the novelty and originality of the study, but note that improved visualization, quantifications and statistical analyses will be necessary to fully support the conclusions of the manuscript. Without performing these quantifications and statistical tests for all figures as detailed below, the magnitude and significance of reported effects are not clear, nor do they take into account the variability of the measures and the dependence of some of the measures.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

10. The OpenNeuro resource for sharing of neuroscience data

    This article has 12 authors:

    1. Christopher J Markiewicz
    2. Krzysztof J Gorgolewski
    3. Franklin Feingold
    4. Ross Blair
    5. Yaroslav O Halchenko
    6. Eric Miller
    7. Nell Hardcastle
    8. Joe Wexler
    9. Oscar Esteban
    10. Mathias Goncavles
    11. Anita Jwa
    12. Russell Poldrack

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This manuscript describes the OpenNeuro data sharing platform, which is built upon the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS). More than 500 data sets are stored in BIDS, following the FAIR principles, and integrated with data analysis tools. This is a highly important resource for the neuroimaging community, and the shared data sets have already been used in basic neuroscience and for methods development.

      (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

    Reviewed by eLife